POBNEWS24, Dhaka, Nov 15, 2021: Apu-Nipur was happy to get a big yard instead of the measured veranda of a rented house in Tongi, Gazipur. Like Apu-Durga in Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s novel ‘Pather Panchali’, the age difference between the two siblings. They dug raw soil in the new yard and built houses. There they write their names on the ground with bamboo twigs. It hurts when someone is removed from the walkway. The age of this house in Khuriakhali village of Sharankhola in Bagerhat was one and half years. Nipu, 11, was then taken from Tongi and admitted to Sundarbans Secondary School. Growing up in the city, he did not learn to swim. From that day onwards the echoing of the sky was endless. Strong winds from the afternoon. As the people of the coast, their mother Rani Begum thought, The insane wind is now as reckless as the river. Not wanting to feel the speed of the wind, he wanted to take shelter somewhere high. The whole coast was then trapped in the darkness of the sky and the tidal currents. The hurricane in Nipur’s hand was extinguished as soon as he left the house. Nipur’s last plea was, ‘Mother, don’t touch my hand.’ The child was reassured by Rani Begum. The water level of Baleshwar river and Bhola river which came in the yard at the opportunity of darkness was unknown even to the women of the coast.
The water of the river is rushing with the dark mixed wind. Rani Begum with her child drowned as soon as she stepped from the stairs of the house. The next wave is like a giant monster. In the words of the queen, a big whirlpool of water. In that whirlwind, he fell on Apu’s lap. The mother is drowning with the child, the speed of the water is dragging the daughter. In the darkness, he saw the scene vaguely, as if to remember or not.
The hole is probably made by water hitting the soft soil in a low place next to the house. Nipu, isolated in a one-way stream, also fell there. The queen is trying to swim with one hand while eating habudubu. Nipur once touched his feet while swimming out of the dark hole. That last touch is mother-child. Rani Begum doesn’t remember anything else in the air, water and darkness. He only knew that he had just swum holding the boy’s hand tightly before he lost consciousness. It comes to a halt in the wind, the darkness does not aim in any direction, it pulls in the current but it only cuts the water and leads it. He lost consciousness as soon as he broke his leg. He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on the high ground of the village mosque. The people who took shelter there have gathered nearby. Little Apu was lying close to her mother’s body when she closed her eyes. Rani Begum still did not understand, Little Apu died on the way to swim. Nipur’s body was found on November 15 in a paddy field of the same village 4 days after cyclone Sidr. Nipu, the princess of the queen, was lying face down with her small body as if in the realm of mud water.
Apu’s body was buried in a three-and-a-half handful of water on one side of the flooded house. After receiving Nipur’s body, he was picked up and buried with his brother’s grave. The queen became speechless. After about a year and a half, little by little, he started returning to normal life. First he looked for pictures of two children. Where the picture will be, nothing left of the house is the Baleshwar-Bhola river. Yet the mother wants to see the child’s face once. We also asked Rani Begum for pictures. Not reported at first. After repeated requests, he took out two pictures of the two dead children. Said His brother had a picture of the boy. From there he cut off a part of it and kept it separate. The picture of the girl has been brought from the old school file. With this picture, 11 year old Nipu was admitted in the sixth class of Sundarbans Secondary School. These two pictures show the existence of her two dead children to Rani Begum. However, he did not look at the picture. Knowing that he wanted to publish in the news, he was unresponsive at first. After a long break, she said, ‘I could not save my children even after becoming a mother. Weather forecasts for 2007 were not readily available. Well, if anyone listens to Apu-Nipur’s words and prays, my children will have a little peace. Revealed, but I do not see the picture. When you look, there is a whistling sound in your head. Then I feel like I’m drowning. It feels the same every night after 14 years of Sidr. ‘ However, I do not see this picture. When you look, there is a whistling sound in your head. Then I feel like I’m drowning. It feels the same every night after 14 years of Sidr. ‘ However, I do not see this picture. When you look, there is a whistling sound in your head. Then I feel like I’m drowning. It feels the same every night after 14 years of Sidr. ‘
There are many families in Bakultala of Southkhali in the coastal region of Sharankhola who still have cyclones every day. One of them is Ruhul Fakir’s family. The fate of all four children is the same. Masuma Begum was scared when the wind speed increased that evening. Ruhul Fakir, a forested husband, went to Khulna that morning to sell wood. Masuma did not anticipate the storm. As soon as the wind started blowing, he wanted to take shelter in a safe place with his four children and Nanda. As soon as he left the house, he realized that the house was flooded. There is a kadai tree on the west side of the yard. The two eldest daughters, 11-year-old Rumi and 6-year-old Sunu, were placed in a dawa and 5-year-old son Mamun was placed with the nuns in a branch of a tree. One-year-old girl Sumaiya was tied to her chest with a cloth. Then he rushed to the house to take the two children. If they can be kept in the branches of the tree, it may be possible to save them. How much distance in the yard! The distance of those few feet then became the distance of Yojana Yojana miles. You can’t move with the speed of water, but the two children are sitting there, cringing in fear. Those few feet away became a lifelong wound for Masuma. Sumaiya still tied to the chest. Guessing in the dark, as soon as those few feet came, it was as if all the waters of the Bay of Bengal came and swept away the small courtyard of the coast.
Rumi and Sunu floated in front of the eyes. He shouted for the last time saying ‘save mother’. He does not know where Masuma Begum was taken by the current. Just realized you have to swim. The child cried from the chest. He swam in a motionless path in indefinite darkness. Nowhere is so much light seen. Sometimes it hits a tree trunk, sometimes it cuts a body in a floating tin. Sumaiya is eating habudubu with her mother. The scene of Rumi and Sunu’s disappearance, the uncertain darkness in front of them, the words of 5-year-old Mamun sitting in an unsafe tree all became monotonous in Masuma Begum’s head. Can’t remember how long it took to find a place in a dry place. Someone grabbed him and dragged him to a higher place. Lying on the ground, he untied Sumaiya and lowered her. By then Sumaiya was dead.
Mamun was sitting on the branch of the tree with his uncle. But for a long time he could not bear the small body. Mamun’s uncle’s hand slipped and he was swept away by the water. Two months before Sidr, their father, Ruhul Fakir, was very fond of saying, “Put on good clothes to keep the children.” He took me by the hand to a studio in Tafalbari. He took care of the three children, took pictures, printed them and brought them home with care.
Their uncle took the picture to other people in the house. In the cyclone Sidr, the couple’s four children, Ruhul Fakir and Masuma, lost their care. The picture of the studio taken a few days before the death of Rumi, Sunu and Mamun was with the papers tied inside the tin rice at Masuma’s father’s house. After 14 years of storms, floods and droughts, it has become completely dirty. However, it is understood that all the love of the parents of a poor family on the coast is attached to that picture. I wanted to know from Masuma Begum, more than a decade has passed. Do you remember everything? Said, ‘I want to forget but I can’t forget anything. Forty years later, I still have that cider night every day. The mother who sees the death of her four children in front of her eyes, can one day erase that stormy night in her life? ‘
Cyclone Sidr killed 26 people in Bakultala village of Southkhali. All four of them are children of Ruhul Fakir. Rani Begum of Khuriakhali in Sharankhola cannot sleep at night even after 14 years. When you close your eyes, you can see Nipu floating in the current. And coming to his ear, the girl is repeatedly saying, don’t shake hands, mother. In the dream he wants to hold the child’s hand. He moves his hand far away. In the yard, the handwritten Apu-Nipu letters are erased by the water like a monster rising from Baleshwar.
